Newcastle United’s odds to win the Championship have been cut as they prepare to make major investment in their squad for the new season.

United signed Matz Sels on Tuesday to compete for the number one slot and will complete a double deal for Dwight Gayle and Matt Ritchie before the weekend. Although Andros Townsend looks set to leave, Newcastle are also hoping to bring in a centre-back in the coming days.

And that has led punters to force United’s odds from 9/4 to 15/8 to win the title, the shortest odds of any club in any division – and also the shortest summer odds ever offered in the Championship.

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Aston Villa are the next closest side – on 8/1. Even though the odds are so short, gamblers are still taking the bet – with Bet365 reporting over 1,000 bets on United since reports linking them with Ritchie and Gayle came to light.

“We may be in the middle of Euro 2016 and the papers full of stories about who will replace Roy Hodgson, but the reports on Newcastle’s transfer business hasn’t passed punters by either,” said Steve Freeth of Bet365.

“We’ve seen over a 1000 bets on a title success in just the last 36 hours and Newcastle will head into pre-season as the best backed side of all four divisions, by some considerable way.”